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Tag: kokoro

Picture of Ragnar Relay team at the finish line

I’m back! I did Ragnar Relay Colorado this past weekend with a 12-person Open Mixed team. This was my first and only Ragnar, and while I’ve heard a lot about them from friends, I didn’t really know what to expect. I haven’t done a running event in years and I was hesitant to sign up, mostly because I hate training for running. I’m pretty much a CrossFitter these days (CrossFitters are notorious for avoiding running). I hadn’t done anything that really kicked my ass since the last Megatransect in 2015, which makes me sad just to type that. 

For this blog I’ll focus on some key takeaways and offer tips for first time Ragnarians.

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Having the right gear and nutrition strategy is critical for success at Kokoro. I’ll review what I did and offer some suggestions.

Clothing

I bought regular white t-shirts from a drug store for like $10 for a pack. You don’t need anything better than that. You want at least 8 shirts at Kokoro…change your shirt every single chance you get so you’re dry. Having a dry shirt also gives you a little morale boost.

For pants, I rocked ripstop TDU pants from 5.11 Tactical. These pants are frigging awesome and I highly recommend them if you can afford it. They’re comfortable, durable, and performed decently despite not being the ideal pant for working out. They’re chock full of features like having cool pockets-within-pockets and a snug-fitting but flexible waistband that is critical for the amount of movement you’re doing. I only brought two pairs, which worked okay, but I recommend having three pairs.

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In my previous post I gave an overview of Kokoro Camp 25. In this post I’ll review what I did to train and offer some ideas for anyone considering Kokoro.

Personal Fitness Standards

Coach Divine recently updated the fitness standards for Kokoro and they are the following:

  • Minimum 50 push ups (40 for women), 50 sit-ups and 50 air squats in 2 minutes each.
  • 10 dead hang pullups for men, 6 women
  • 1 mile run in boots and utility pants on road in 9:30
  • Body Armor (aka Murph) with 20# pack (15# for women): 1 hour and 10 minutes minimum
  • 10 mile run in less than 1:20 (recommended)
  • 20 mile ruck hike with load in less than 6 hours (recommended)

This is me speculating, but I think because of the growing popularity of Kokoro Camp, Coach Divine is putting a renewed emphasis on the basic skills of running, rucking, and body weight PT to make sure attendees have those skills.

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It’s kind of useless to describe Kokoro to people who don’t know about things like SealFit or BUD/S or Q-Course. What I usually say is, Kokoro is a military-style adventure event where you work out for 50+ straight hours and it involves team building and mental toughness challenges. The reality is it’s a two-day beatdown that involves finding your Warrior Spirit and pushing yourself to do 20X more than you thought possible. There are a lot of pushups, a lot of rucking, a lot of chaffing, a lot of yelling, no sleep, and it costs nearly $1300 for the privilege of embracing the suck. Coaches are former Navy Seals.

I’ll try to answer the question of why to do Kokoro, or at least why I did it, because it’s a legit question. This will be the first in a 3-part series of posts on Kokoro. I’ll address training and gear in the second and third posts:

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I haven’t blogged about this, but my buddy Junior and I have been training for months to participate in Kokoro Camp. The date is finally here…we’re leaving for California tomorrow morning and will be at SealFit HQ by Friday at noon. If you haven’t heard of it, Kokoro Camp is a 50+ hour military-style camp modeled after the infamous BUD/S program that Navy Seals go through. I’m anticipating an extremely high reading on the Suck-o-meter with lots of me getting my ass kicked.

From the SealFit website:

As the world’s premier training camp for forging mental toughness, an Unbeatable Mind and a warrior’s spirit, the camp is an intense crucible experience modeled off of the famous Navy SEAL Hell Week. The difference is that Kokoro is built to teach through experience, rather than try to make you into a quitter.

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